Taoiseach Enda Kenny faced questions this evening over his future after an embargoed speech contained a phrase which suggested this will be his last St Patrick's US visit as Taoiseach.
The speech, which he was due to deliver to an Ireland Funds Gala dinner tonight, contained the phrase "on this night - my last with you as Taoiseach".
A second version of that speech which issued later did not have that departure reference contained in it.
A Government spokesperson said the original speech had been issued in error and had not been approved by the Taoiseach.
Asked about it by journalists in Washington, the Taoiseach said the speech that had been issued was not the speech he would be delivering tonight.
Taoiseach explains speech mix-up pic.twitter.com/CbD5RQ3RME
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) March 15, 2017
When pressed on whether the original inclusion of the phrase indicated his intentions, he said that he had already addressed the matter with the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party of his intentions and how he intended to go about it.
He said the phrase was removed "because it shouldn’t have been in there".
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Meanwhile, Mr Kenny said he did not travel to the US "to answer to Nigel Farage".
He was responding to comments made on RTÉ Radio by the former UKip leader who said that President Trump was expecting an apology from Mr Kenny following on from the comments he made in the Dáil last year referring to Mr Trump's comments as "racist" and "dangerous".
Mr Kenny said he was going to the White House in response to an invitation issued by Mr Trump, and that he was "proud and privileged to be the leader of the Irish Government".
The Taoiseach said that he had not referred to Donald Trump as "being racist" , but that his comment was "in respect of his language".
Asked if using racist language by definition made a person racist, Mr Kenny said that it did not "follow at all", that "language and words can be used by people in many regards".
He said that he had made his comments when Mr Trump was "running as a candidate", and that he was "not into English Classes".
He said the language that Mr Trump had used, which had caused the Taoiseach to originally describe his comments as "racist" and "dangerous", was not the language that he would use, but "it was not related to his personality".
The Taoiseach said he was going to the White House "to continue the traditional connection between Ireland and the United States symbolising the contribution Irish people have made over many centuries and the fact that we want to continue with that".
He said he has confidence in the future of US mulitnationals in Ireland despite proposed tax policies of the Trump administration, adding that the Irish corporate tax rate is a "matter for us".
The Taoiseach said he has met with many US companies in Ireland and "they're not leaving".
Mr Kenny also said he would raise the issue of LGBT rights with Vice-President Mike Pence.
